CHAPTER I 
                                       INTRODUCTION 
                     A.  Background of the study 
                             According  to  Selinker  (1972)interlanguage  is  the  process  of 
                        language learning is of transitional nature which has its own features. This 
                        dynamic  system  of  learner  language  accounts  for  the  variability  in  L2 
                        learners’  linguistic  production  which  is  in  contrast  with  the  linguistic 
                        system  of  native  speakers.  This  interim  grammar puts  emphasis  on  the 
                        phenomenon  of  backsliding  through  which  it  can  be  deduced  that  the 
                        linguistic  features  observed  in  learners’  language,  is  not  random  or 
                        towards the speakers’ language system (Selinker, 1972). 
                             The  Interlanguage  theory  based  on  error  analysis  discusses  that 
                        learner errors do not just transfers from L1 to L2. The learner cognitively tries 
                        to determine the L2 structure and in the process creates an interlanguage of 
                        developmental  sequences  containing  various  stages.  These  stages  often 
                        include grammatically incorrect structures. If a learner uses a grammatically 
                        correct sentence it is believed that this is a repetition of something the learner 
                        heard (often a “chunk”). When grammatically incorrect utterances are made, 
                        this is believed to show the learner’s true level of understanding of the rules 
                        and patterns of the L2 (Lightbrown & Spada, 1999). 
                             Second  language  acquisition  refers  to  the  process  of  learning 
                        another language after the native language has been learned. The second 
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                   language  is commonly referred to as the L2. Furthermore, Loewen and 
                   Reinders  (2011)  state  that  the  order  of  acquisition  represent  a 
                   developmental of L2 learning similar to developmental squence. However, 
                   the order of acquisition relates to the learning of different syntactic and 
                   morphological  structures,  whereas  developmental  squence  relates  to  the 
                   acquiring one spesific morphosyntactic features, such as English negation. 
                       According to Merrim-webster dictionary, development is the act or 
                   process  of  growing  or  causing  something  to  grow  or  become  more 
                   advanced.  There  are  some  developmental  stages  of  second  language 
                   acquisition.  According  to  Haynes  (1997),  all  new  learners  of  English 
                   progress  through  the  same  stages  to  acquire  language.These  stages  are 
                   often described as(1) the silent period, (2) early production, (3) speech 
                   emergency,  (4)  intermediate  fluency,  (5)  advance  fluency,  which  have 
                   been observed to be common among many of these learners. 
                       Children’s language acquisition is a phenomenon regarding the fact 
                   that  children only receive limited formal language teaching and even in 
                   some cases they only receive very limited language input, such as children 
                   raised in a country that English as foreign language. In fact, language is a 
                   very  complex system  composed by the interface of phonetic,  semantic, 
                   syntactic,  and  pragmatic  rules  which  are  related  to  each  other  and 
                   interwoven  into  a  single  unity.  However,  despite  their  limited  formal 
                   language  teaching  and  poor  language  input,  children  are  still  able  to 
                   acquire  a  targeted  language.  In  Kusmanto’s  research,  he  said  that  it  is 
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                   magnificent phenomenon because they are able to acquire by their own 
                   cognitive  endowment  the  very  complex  language  system.  Such 
                   phenomenon  raises  an  assumption  that  there  must  be  an  underlying 
                   mechanism  by  which  children’s  language  acquisition  is  possible 
                   (Kusmanto,2003). 
                       The  Indonesian  students  still  use  Indonesian  way  of  concept  in 
                   expressing  their  ideas  in  English.  The  fact  that  there  are  still  a  lot  of 
                   problems happening in using grammar in negative sentences in junior and 
                   senior  high  school  students.  The  students  are  wondering  when  their 
                   sentences are grammatically correct or not. It happens because English is 
                   not their native language and their environment where the place that they 
                   live does not support to their studies. 
                       However, second langauge learners from different first langauge 
                   background  behave  somewhat  differently  within  those  stages.  Some 
                   studies concerning negatives acquisition in English and German provide 
                   evidence of a clear sequence of development (Meisel, 2011). Each of these 
                   sequences is defined in term of grammatical properties, such as negation, 
                   which have been acquired during the period. Ellis (1996) state that the 
                   acquisition of negation shows clear transitional structure which involve a 
                   series of forms that learners use to master the target language form. 
                       There are four stages in the developmental sequence of negation 
                   have been observed; stage one is the negative particle (no or not), stage 
                   two is the negative element don’t, stage three is the negative element is 
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                   positioned after auxiliary verbs (are, is, etc.) and modals (can, etc.), and the 
                   last stage four is the negative element don’t is marked for person, number and 
                   tense. (Lightbrown & Spada 1999). 
                       This  penomenon  happened  in  the  writer’s  school  when  she  is 
                   teaching in MTs AL Uswah Bergas, when the teacher asked the students to 
                   make  negative  sentences,  there  were  many  students  made  mistakes  in 
                   making  negative  sentences  that  ungrammatically.  These  following 
                   negative sentences were made by students of junior high school: 
                       No eat. 
                       I no can swim in the swimming pool. 
                       They have no money to buy the car. 
                       I am not eat breakfast. 
                       From those sentences above, they did language transfer, Indonesian 
                   to Englsih. The students do not realize that those sentences are false. (I no 
                   can  swim  in  the  swimming  pool,  it  should  be  I  can  not  swim  in  the 
                   swimming pool), (I am not eat breakfast, should be I do not eat breakfast). 
                   Because of this fact, Indonesian language has differnt systematic grammar 
                   from English. It is influenced by the first language that they get when they 
                   were born. 
                       Some people  doing  the  study  about  developmental  sequence  of 
                   English neegation. One of the study is from Chik’s study (2009) examined 
                   the acqisition of negation by Malay ESL learners. The study investigated 
                   the interlanguage of English negation among Malay ESL learners. But in 
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